banking stocks posts
FeedPosted Sep 3rd 2009 5:00PM by Steven Halpern (RSS feed)
Filed under: Newsletters, MasterCard Inc'A' (MA), Stocks to Buy
"In this recession, consumers are spending less per purchase on their credit cards -- but that hasn't slowed down the credit card company MasterCard (NYSE: MA)," says Paul Tracy.
In his The StreetAuthority Market Advisor, he points out, "In the second quarter, MasterCard's net income grew by +26%, beating Wall Street's expectations by a significant margin." Here's his review.
"MasterCard makes its money from the fees it charges merchants and the banks that issue its cards. The issuing banks make money by charging consumers interest.
"And as we've seen, the banks can lose money when consumers default on their credit card debt. But MasterCard's fee-based business model has been relatively resilient during the downturn.
Continue reading Charged up over MasterCard
Posted Aug 14th 2009 2:20PM by Steven Halpern (RSS feed)
Filed under: Newsletters, Regions Financial (RF), Wells Fargo (WFC), Stocks to Buy, Recession, U.S. Bancorp (USB), Financial Crisis
"While I continue to avoid bank stocks and bank ETFs , I very much continue to recommend that you buy and own plenty of nicely high-yielding bank preferreds and bank minibonds for your retirement investing," says Neil George.
In his income-focused Stocks that Pay You, the advisors reviews his favorites among these lesser-known investment vehicles.
"Why invest in banks at all? Because -- as they continue to clean up and bolster their balance sheets -- banks are getting even better credit risks, which means that you'll be even more likely to get paid your high-yield dividends and interest payments.
Continue reading Bank bets for income investors
Posted Aug 7th 2009 1:00PM by Steven Halpern (RSS feed)
Filed under: Newsletters, Regions Financial (RF), Stocks to Buy, Housing, Recession
"Even among the broad-based market carnage of the past year, regional banks with heavy real estate exposure have been notably poor performers," notes turnaround expert George Putnam.
In The Turnaround Letter, he explains, "While investors are still wary of this group, there are cases where the market has overreacted and the stocks will eventually rebound dramatically." Here, he looks at four favorite regionals.
"Many regional banking stocks are now trading at a small fraction of their 'book value.' In more normal times, most banks will trade for two to three times book value and sometimes more.
Continue reading Four bank turnarounds: Rebound in regionals?
Posted Apr 17th 2009 11:30AM by Steven Halpern (RSS feed)
Filed under: Newsletters, Goldman Sachs Group (GS), Stocks to Buy, Federal Reserve, Financial Crisis
"Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) surprised investors with better-than-expected earnings while also raising equity to help replay $10 billion in TARP money," says Bill Martin In BullMarket.com.
"On the earnings front, Goldman swung back to solid profitability after turning in its first-ever quarterly loss at the end of its last fiscal year, which ended November 28th, 2008.
"Goldman earned a net profit of $1.66 billion, or $3.39 a share, compared to a Q1 2008 profit of $1.47 billion, or $3.23 a share. The results are a vast improvement over the loss of -$2.29 billion, or -$4.97 a share, reported for Q4 2008.
"Goldman Sachs has long been the best run of what were previously Wall Street's top investment banks and the strength of its trading operations were evident in the quarter.
Continue reading Good news from Goldman (GS)
Posted Apr 13th 2009 3:20PM by Steven Halpern (RSS feed)
Filed under: Newsletters, Stocks to Buy, Recession, Visa Inc. (V)
In his The Ticker Tape Digest, technician Leo Fasciocco looks for stocks that have broken out of basing patterns; his latest breakout stock is credit card processing firm Visa (NYSE: V).
"Visa manages a group of global payment card brands. It licenses them to financial institutions that issue cards to their customers. The company maintains the largest card service in the world with annual revenue of $6.5 billion.
"The stock soared after it came public. It peaked at 90 and then was swept lower with the bear market. The stock has put in what seems to be a good bottom. The key is for it to kick in an up trend. That is quite possible now, but not a given.
Continue reading Charged up over Visa
Posted Mar 10th 2009 5:40PM by Alex Salkever (RSS feed)
Filed under: Bad news, Citigroup Inc. (C), Palm Inc (PALM), Financial Crisis

Sorry, hedgies. Headhunters think you have
another 20,000 job losses ahead in 2009, representing a 10% industry contraction. As if it wasn't bad enough that your base salaries were getting hammered.
Yet
Vikram Pandit shocked with news that
Citigroup, Inc. (NYS:
C) may run a profit. The question -- for how long? Credit cards, commercial real estate, and many other shoes still dropping. Our Piqqem Sentiment on
TARP recipients shows neutral across the board, so could Vik be right, and could it be that the gloom is lifting? Has TARP really been great coverage?
Continue reading Doomsday Scenario: Hedge fund jobs evaporate, but are big banks really back?
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